Shambhala; The Dark Side
Over the past two months, there have been many twists in the Shambhala ride. Each time a new piece of information is uncovered, more and more questions seem to crop up. What has become clear is that there is a disturbingly dark side to this mythical paradise in the Himalayas.
When I started this trip, I [...]
Bhutan; Putting the Adventure back in to Adventure Cycling
Back in the 8th century, Guru Rinpoche had a fleet of Tigresses to ride all over the Himalayas subduing demons as he went. In 2010 we’ve got a sweet bunch of Konas to ride at a secret location 4000m above the Paro Valley.
Bhutan’s mountain bike scene is still very young but it’s a growing sport [...]
Sichuan – the best way to see it, is to ride it.
Check out the state of my front disk brake pads. Two massive descents on the way to Daocheng at 3750 m altitude did this. Amazingly the pads just kept on going, and going for three agonising days right up until my approach to the town of Daocheng. I couldn’t believe it, it [...]
You got rocks on your head
All is not quiet in one monastery hidden from view high up in the forested mountains of Yunnan. The sound of cracking can be heard as spines are stretched, legs & arms are contorted and the constant hum of chanting above the patter of monsoon rains send me adrift. There is no electricity here, my [...]
“You won’t find Shambhala on any map”
And so I set off to find more clues on my quest to learn more about Shambhala. I ride north west from Lijiang and make my way to the beautiful Lugu lake before crossing over to Sichuan province. After two days riding in heavy rain I find a sign which says “Welcome to Shangri-La”! I [...]
Arrived in Lijiang – time to go!
It seems that no sooner I have arrived, it’s time to go again – that’s life on the road I guess.
Lijiang is a total shock to the senses. Busy alley ways, hoards of Chinese tourists buying everything from cowboy hats to Yak meat and all manner of trinkets. Just finding my way through the old [...]
A hidden valley – but for how long?
It’s not often I feel sad to leave a place when riding my bike. Usually I’m super excited to get cracking but last week I left a beautiful tea horse road node village and felt, well, sad.
I intend to go back in 5 weeks and will write more about it then. I was lucky enough [...]
How do we get across those mountains then?
Tim was worried that if we were left out here for the night, we would surely perish, Andy was pretty quiet and I began to really feel the cold. 45 minutes went by and still nothing. I was starting to shiver now and I was beginning to come around to Tim’s thinking.
Grub gets a front end face lift
Big thanks to the guys at Favourite Cycles in Manly for helping me get ready for the big ride. Favourite Cycles have long been a supporter of my trips and their knowledge on all things bikes is astounding! Leighton took me through replacing a bottom bracket after hours last night, as well as using the [...]
Australian Geographic sponsor Search for Shambhala
I’m proud to announce that the Australian Geographic Society have come on board for the Search for Shambhala solo mountain bike expedition this year! The Australian Geographic Society support community, research and adventure projects throughout Australia and overseas and is an invaluable source of knowledge and inspiration.
I applied for a grant from AG late last [...]
Kona COG publish
Kona Mountain Bike’s funky new blog, COG, features a primer of the Tour de Timor story this week and can be seen on the following link; http://cog.konaworld.com/archives/1646
Here’s a photo I took of Team Kona Australia rider Campbell Townsend on the King of the Mountain (KOM) on stage 4. Melbourne based rider Campbell rode his Kona [...]
SMH use mushypea photo
Check this out, Ivan makes the front page of the Online Sydney Morning Herald (SMH)! 20 seconds into the video, we can see Ivan during stage 1 riding along the coast from Dili to Baucau.
If you look carefully around 2 min 40s you’ll see a still shot in the video. Jock Cheetham, a [...]
Rubbing shoulders with a world leader
Here’s a picture of Ivan and I with President Jose Ramos-Horta at the Presidential Palace after our interview in Dili. I’m writing up the 8 questions we asked the 60 year old Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and I must say for our first interview, Ivan and I did great! We’ll be popping some of the [...]
Back from Timor-Leste
Wow, what an amazing trip! Ivan and I got back late last night after almost two weeks traveling and racing our bikes around Timor-Leste. I wasn’t able to blog on the actual trip as I was riding as well as media so I will try to get some photos and info up here over the [...]
